Practice Groups

Education

New York University School of Law, J.D., 1995; magna cum laude; Order of the Coif

University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, B.S., 1992; magna cum laude

University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences, B.A., 1992; magna cum laude; with distinction

Admissions

New York

Court Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

Neil M. Barofsky is an accomplished trial lawyer and well-known authority on a variety of issues at the intersection of economics, law, business, policy and politics. Drawing upon his experience as a former federal prosecutor and as the Presidentially-appointed first special inspector general of the historic US$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Mr. Barofsky assists companies seeking to improve their corporate culture through compliance counseling and monitorships. He also focuses on white collar investigations and complex commercial litigation, often with a public interest component. He is a prolific author and speaker who has developed a national reputation in thecompliance andwhite collar arenas. In 2015, he was named one of The National Law Journal’s “Winning” litigators. He was also recognized by The National Law Journal as a regulatory and compliance “Trailblazer.”

While not exhaustive, Mr. Barofsky’s recent engagements include:

Appointed monitor to Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC following its $5.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the sales of residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Appointed monitor to Credit Suisse AG following the bank’s $715 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, part of a broader $2.6 billion settlement that involved the U.S. Department of Justice and federal regulators.

Representation of non-profit homeowner assistance groups in civil litigation against California governor Jerry Brown relating to the misappropriation of more than $450 million in mortgage settlement relief funds.

Representation of senior executives at CEO and Director level in state and federal criminal and regulatory investigations.

Serving as expert witness in significant complex commercial litigation involving a major regional bank and in a criminal case against a community bank.

Served as national counsel to a group of consumer installment lenders and loan servicers facing civil litigation and regulatory enforcement actions throughout the United States, including a first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

In his role as chief watchdog for TARP, he created and oversaw a law enforcement division that conducted criminal and civil investigations of fraud and abuse linked to the bailout program, resulting in recoveries or avoided losses of more than $700 million in taxpayer money and which has led to more than 130 fraud convictions to date. He also established and oversaw an audit division that created reports that brought greater transparency and accountability to TARP, recommended ways to improve the program, and which protected taxpayers from fraud-related losses.

Previously, Mr. Barofsky spent eight years as a prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. There, he served in the Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit and later founded and led the office’s Mortgage Fraud Group as Senior Trial Counsel. He investigated and prosecuted some of the most significant cases in the United States, including the successful investigation, trial and conviction of former Refco, Inc. officers for their promotion of and participation in a $2.4 billion securities and accounting fraud. As a member of the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit, Mr. Barofsky investigated and prosecuted complex transnational narcotics cases, including the successful investigation leading to the indictment of the top 50 leaders of the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest narcotics indictment in U.S. history.

For his work in the Refco matter, Mr. Barofsky received the US Attorney General’s John Marshall Award, the Department of Justice’s highest award for excellence in legal performance, and the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys’ Director’s Award for Superior Performance.

Immediately before joining Jenner & Block, Mr. Barofsky was Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, an adjunct professor at the law school and affiliated with the Mitchell Jacobson Leadership Program on Law and Business. He is a frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to financial regulation, was a senior contributing editor for Bloomberg TV, and has written opinion columns for publications such as The New York Times, the Financial Times, The New Republic, Bloomberg, Reuters and others. He is also the author of Bailout, his bestselling book about his experiences as SIGTARP.